Hi - I have relished in the fruits of your research labor, on this wonderful forum, for awhile now. I cannot begin to tell you how much your post have helped! I have to thank Conductor71 because I was so impressed by her post on the NPF forum, I followed her over here. To my delight, there is such a wealth of information so graciously contributed, by so many great people! I can't thank you enough!!! My husband has PD, but I decided to contribute because I think that I have finally had a research breakthrough and wanted to share.

First, I will give you some background information on my husband. He was diagnosed 8 years ago, at the age of 41. Beginning symptoms were tremor of the right hand and loss of arm swing. He started noticing symptoms about a year before dx. After seeing an MDS, he was immediately diagnosed and began the Adiagio Clinical trial with Azilect. (He is still involved with this trial) We feel Azilect has definitely helped slow his progression. Amantadine was added a year ago to help with right hand tremor. He has taken vitamin C & Ibuprofen daily, since he was dx. We are very blessed that he is still working & exercises everyday. He hasn't had any other issues, except excessive saliva. We are considering Botox to help combat this issue. ( Would love to hear if anyone else has tried this) Still trying to keep Sinemet at bay.

To preface my research...my husband was in a car accident 2000. He hit his head and was unconscious for about 10 min. I have always had a suspicion that this was the stimulus for his PD. I was reading through some older post and saw that someone had mentioned the Davis Phinney Foundation. I noticed a recent headline on that site that said, Brain Injury & Herbicides linked to PD. ( Dr. Okun actually has a comment in the article) This prompted me to research the product Round Up weed killer that my husband had used for several summers after the accident. I recall this because we bought our kids a trampoline and needed to constantly kill a lot of weeds & poison ivy in that area. The second I did a search... Round Up being linked to PD popped up! The active ingredient is Glyphosate. The article specifically states, "Roundup herbicide is now a ubiquitous contaminant in our air, rain, groundwater, and food, making complete avoidance near impossible." I have only scratched the surface with my research, but it sounds a lot like the herbicide Paraquat, that was banned years ago because of a relation to PD. Apparently, it can still be used by Commercial Professionals. As the article implies, both of theses factors alone are associated with a risk for Parkinson's, but combined poses a greater risk. This begs the question, Why are these herbicides still being used? We haven't used it in years, but it still makes me worry about my kids being exposed during that time.

I apologize that I can't post the links, as I am new to the forum.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't do some form of research. The relentless pursuit of something that will eradicate or help in some way. While not definitive and knowing there are different pathways to PD, I feel that this is a plausible explanation of how my husband's PD was aroused or began. Would love to hear any of your thoughts.